Taking place on 25 April, this ERS Vision Live episode focused on Patient empowerment: literacy and digital opportunities.

The expert panellists discussed key areas, including:

• Remote care: barriers and solutions to sharing health information in a digital world
• Engaging patients - new approaches to healthcare professional/patient interactions
• Data shadow of patients - how to talk to patients about how their health data will be used

Chairs:

• Mr Kjeld Hansen

Kjeld Hansen is the Chair of the European Lung Foundation (ELF) and has been associated with ELF since 2012. In his professional capacity, Kjeld is working with digitalisation and is employed by the academic institution Kristiania in Oslo, Norway.

In his patient advocacy work, Kjeld is inspired by digitalisation as an enabler for new approaches and organisational forms that put people with respiratory conditions at the centre of the initiative.

• Dr Tiago Alfaro 

Tiago is a Pulmonologist in Coimbra, Portugal where he specialises in interstitial lung disease and interventional pulmonology. His involvement in ERS includes being the former Early Career Representative of ERS Assembly 12 - interstitial lung diseases.

He has a strong dedication to improving medical research and postgraduate education, focusing on digital opportunities in his native Portugal.

Speakers:

• Dr Vitalii Poberezhets 

Vitalii is a Ukranian pulmonologist working in the Department of Propaedeutics of Internal Medicine, National Pirogov Memorial Medical University. His clinical interests are mainly in the field of pulmonary medicine involve treatment, management and rehabilitation of patients with COPD and asthma.

Within the ERS, he is the Chair of Assembly Group 01.04 - m-Health/e-health and member of Long Range Planning Committee of Assembly 1.

• Dr Georgia Hardavella MD, MSc, PhD 

Dr Georgia Hardavella (MD, MSc, PhD) is a Consultant Respiratory Physician at 'Sotiria' Athens' Chest Diseases Hospital in Greece. Her special interests include lung cancer, interventional bronchoscopies and pulmonary nodules. 'Sotiria' is the National Tertiary Referral Centre for Respiratory Diseases in Greece with more than 300 dedicated respiratory beds.

She has served as the Chair of the Professional Advisory Committee in the European Lung Foundation (ELF) and she has been involved in numerous ELF projects promoting patient and public involvement in research and clinical services.

• Ms Barbara Crossley 

Barbara Crossley has been a member of the ELF Bronchiectasis Patient Advisory Group since 2017.

She has helped organise three Bronchiectasis Patient Conferences, collaborated with EMBARC researchers on ongoing projects, helped formulate patient surveys and patient-friendly information for the European Lung Foundation website, and is currently helping develop a patient self-care guide.

She has lifelong bronchiectasis and is a writer who lives in the Peak District in Derbyshire, UK.